Maze of Fear
by CommanderKon
Summary: After Robin, Kid Flash and Superboy are captured in the middle of a mission by an unknown enemy, they awake in a maze in which their own nightmares will stalk the halls and threaten to shatter their minds.


**A/N: What was that summary. Just what. And the title? Jesus… **

**So, I'm apparently incapable of writing fluff. Grrr. This just sort of popped into my head and I wrote it down. It's really more of a drabble than anything. . Oh well. **

**Set in the year following the Season 1 finale. **

_It was supposed to be a recon mission. A **simple** recon assignment. Observe and report, Batman had said. But, Artemis and Wally had gotten into one of their famous fights that only seemed to increase in frequency after they had begun dating. Consequently, the small time drug dealers that were suspected of smuggling Cobra Venom into Gotham had heard their bickers and bailed. Twenty goons had appeared out of nowhere, with ten more on their heels. The Team had no choice but to run. _

_ And then chilling laughter had followed them down the warehouse's halls. It wasn't the manic laughter they had heard before, but darker. It reeked of evil and despair, and of fear. _

_The Bioship had appeared in the sky as soon as the Team sprinted out of the building. M'gann entered first, immediately followed by Kaldur. Artemis was catapulted up next by Superboy, who landed with a thud beside the archer a second later._

_There was a strangled yell from behind them and then mechanical bullet shots peppered the ground below the ship. M'gann had started screaming at the top of her lungs at Kaldur as she brought the ship higher into the air. _

_"We have to go, **now**!" she had shrieked to the Atlantean. _

_"I know!" Kaldur leaned over the side of the Bioship, ever their graceful leader. "Kid! Robin! Hurry!"_

_Robin and Kid Flash, who had not yet boarded the ship, were falling behind. With a yell to keep on running, Robin had jumped onto Wally's back in a desperate attempt to keep up, and pulled out his grapple gun. The vigilante pointed it at the Martian ship, one eye closing as he aimed the piece of tech. "Okay, here we-"_

_A dart rocketed out from the warehouse behind them and bolted itself through Kid Flash's right ankle. Wally had howled in pain, in agony, and toppled backwards, falling and pinning Robin beneath him. The thin cord attached to the projectile tightened and yanked Kid Flash back with incredible strength, dragging the speedster back to the building. _

_"Wally!" Artemis screamed, lunging forward, only to be held back by Kaldur's firm hold._

_"KF!" Robin threw himself off the ground in a panic towards Wally, grabbing onto the redhead's hand at the last second. But he was too small to stop the massive force pulling on the speedster, and now both heroes were being hauled backwards to the warehouse. The two disappeared into the building, Kid Flash's contorted screams abruptly being cut off. _

_"I'll get them!" Conner shouted from beside Miss Martian. "Just give me a minute!"_

_"Conner, no!" M'gann wailed, momentarily realizing her hold on the Bioship, but Superboy had already jumped out of the Martian ship. _

_The clone hit the ground – creating a small crater in the process – and then raced towards the open warehouse. He slowed near the compound's entrance and peered into the dark, almost pitch black, interior. _

_"Robin -?"_

_And then something – something huge and scaly and terrible – shot out of the darkness and dragged Superboy forward with an inhuman roar. The Team barely had time to react before Superboy was gone and a metal door was slammed down over the entrance, cutting them off from their teammates. _

_ —_

Robin's head hurt. A lot. He woozily rolled over, become aware for the first time the cold concrete floor on which he lay. The vigilante shook his head again and drunkenly got to his feet. His head throbbed; he could feel an egg shaped bruise there when he put his hand up to it.

_Ah, crap._

Blinking owlishly, Robin cast a shift look around his surroundings, one hand moving to rest instinctively on his belt. Which wasn't there.

_Shit._

Immediately, Robin's hands flew up to verify that his domino mask was still in place. Check. No major wounds that would indicate surgery had taken place while he was under? Check.

Physically, he was fine. But alone.

Now on high alert, Robin resumed his examination of the area he found himself in. All around him, rising twenty feet up, were concrete walls, cracked and dirty. Gray smoke floated out of the splits in the rock and wrapped tendrils around Robin's form until he waved them off. The space was illuminated by a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, showing off more flaws in the concrete floors and walls, and a hallway to his right, leading into darkness

After a moment's hesitation, Robin crept towards the corridor, hands up to defend himself at a moment's notice.

The hall was lite by another florescent bulb about twenty feet away from the first, and then another farther down, before it turned sharply to the right. Picking up his pace, Robin headed around this corner – only to be face to face with a dead end. Frowning, the Boy Wonder gave the unmoving wall a look, before ducking into a corridor opening on his left. Ran about twenty feet. Left turn again, right turn, dead end. Back track. Turned left instead of right. Sprint, left turn, another dead end. Two blocked corridors later and it finally hit him.

He was in a maze.

Robin could feel his heartbeat pick up immediately. He hated mazes. He could remember as a child going into carnival mazes that always ended in tears when he couldn't find his parents. He was always scared of losing them.

The teen vigilante was torn out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps slowly approaching. He unconsciously fell into a defensive position, light on his toes, fists in front of his face.

"Hey, Rob? It's okay! It's me!"

Kid Flash hobbled into view, smiling shakily with his hands up in a sign of surrender, and Robin relaxed.

"Hey there, Rob. Great place for a party, eh?"

Robin did not say anything as he did a quick once over of Wally. The speedster was leaning heavily on the wall, face white and hands shaking. At least he had the sense to rip the bottom of his leggings into strips to bind his injured leg. But even then, Robin could see dark blood leaking slowly out from under the bandages and onto the floor.

"You look horrible," Wally remarked as Robin ended his visual examination.

Robin shot him a look, but otherwise ignored the speedster. "We're in a maze of some sort." He pursed his lips as he stepped closer to one of the rock walls. "It's nothing like I've ever seen."

"Yeah, I got the whole maze part about two minutes in here," Kid Flash muttered, sliding to sit on the ground with a small gasp. "Dude, not to point out the obvious or anything, but we need to get out of here."

"Agreed." Robin nodded his head briefly. "But, we need to find Superboy first."

Wally cocked an eyebrow. "Superboy?"

Robin turned to face the speedster. "Yes. I saw him come in after us right before I black out."

"Idiot," Kid flash breathed. "Okay." He stood up heavily, pulling on the wall for support. "Let's go find Superboy."

Twenty minutes passed of the two struggling through the maze, which just seemed to grow more and more extensive every minute, and then they started hearing the screams.

"No! No! You won't take me! I won't go back!"

Robin and Wally looked at each other, both faces the picture of fear.

"Conner."

Moving at a near run, the two heroes kept pushing forward, desperately trying to ignore the terrible shouts that were steadily increasing in volume.

The corridor they were travelling along opened up into a slightly larger arena-type area and Wally and Robin stopped short.

Twelve or so men in bulky armor were advancing upon Superboy, who was pressed against the wall and looked quite worse for wear. Even in this poor light, Robin could see the layer of sweat over Conner's face and the sharpness of his veins as they bulged against the skin of his neck. The close was twitching frantically, wildly looking at the men around him. The nearest one stepped a bit closer and Conner lashed out with his fist, catching the man in the chest, sending him flying backwards into the wall.

"Crud. One second, KF!" Robin abruptly dropped Wally, who collapsed upon the floor with a hiss of pain. But Robin ignored his and dashed to the enemy around Superboy. Flipping through the air, the vigilante landed lightly on one of the men's head and deftly flipped the larger figure around and into another. Within seconds, the whole lot was lying unconscious on the ground by Robin's hand.

The Boy Wonder allowed himself a small pat on the back at his handiwork before he turned to Superboy.

"Hey, Superboy? You all right there?"

Conner had sagged against the wall while Robin was finishing up the fight, his face drawn and haggard. Now, he was looking at his fellow teammate with blue eyes that were bolted open in terror.

"Conner-?" Robin stretched out a hand towards the clone.

Superboy shrunk away from his touch with a whimper and sank further into the wall. He actually cracked the concrete further in his attempt to gain distance between Robin and himself.

"Whoa!" Robin cried, throwing his hands up in a sign of surrender. "Easy there, big guy! I'm Robin, your friend!"

But Conner continued to stare at him in fear and confusion.

"Conner," Robin began again, talking as if Superboy were a very small child. "It's me. Robin. Remember? "Again he reached to put a hand on Conner's shoulder, only to have the clone recoil further and then jump forward to bare his teeth in the younger teen's face.

"I will **not** go back with you! I am not a weapon. You will not take me back there! I won't –" Something in the teenager's face broke and he crumpled mid-sentence to the floor with his arms around his legs.

For the first time, Robin noticed the full dilation of Superboy's eyes and the rapid tapping of his fingers against his knee. He shot a look back at Wally, who was still on the ground holding his ankle, now looking befuddled. Then Robin looked back at Superboy and it clicked.

"Shit," he muttered. Turning to job over to Wally, he roughly pulled the redhead up to his feet.

"Dude, what is the matter with -?"

"Fear gas," Robin hissed. "He's been infected with fear gas."

"What?" Wally gaped. "How-?"

"Look around you!" Robin yelled, waving his hands over his head, sending plumes of hazy gas everywhere. "It's everywhere! God, I am such an _idiot_!"

Kid Flash shook his head. "No, I mean _how _did they get it into him? Conner's half-Kryptonian! He shouldn't be affected at all. And why aren't we hallucinating?"

"I don't know," Robin admitted slowly as he hefted Wally over his shoulder again. "Maybe they created a toxin that only worked on Kryptonians?"

"How would someone get that much power?" Wally asked, mask creasing as he frowned. "They would need, well, kryptonite…" He trailed off, looking at Robin helplessly.

"We can assume Scarecrow was at least involved in this," Robin muttered as the two heroes approached Conner. "And there's no way he could have gotten Kryptonite without some help. But the question is who that other help is… "

"We can think about that later. Now we just have to get out of here." The speedster turned his attention to Superboy. "Hey, Supey! You want to get up now?" He asked, earning a jab in the abdomen from Robin.

"Dude! He's terrified!" Robin snapped. "Be careful."

"I don't want to go back," Conner whispered, his voice hoarse. "Don't make me go back."

"Go back where?" Robin asked, staying a good two yards away from the trembling Kryptonian.

Conner's eyes rose to meet Robin's white eye covers slowly. "Did Desmond send you?" He said in a strangled whisper.

Robin's face fell. "He thinks we're here to take him back to Cadmus," he said to Wally in an undertone, then continued talking to Superboy in a gentle voice. "No, we're not here from Desmond. We're here to make to feel better and take you home."

"We still need to find a way out of here," Wally added in. "What?" He looked affronted as Robin gave him a dirty look. "We do."

Superboy buried his face back into his arms. "No… I just- I just want…"

"Want what, Conner?'

One of the clone's hands reached out towards Robin, who froze, but allowed Superboy to pull him closer. Raising his lips to Robin's ear, Conner whispered. "I just want Clark." He leaned back again, blue eyes dull with misery. "Get me to Clark."

And Robin's heart broke. Slowly, he pulled the older teen to his feet and Wally up with the other. "We need to get out of here."

Wally took up position on Conner's other side, half helping the clone along, half leaning on the middle for support as he limped along. Robin led the way, mentally mapping out where they had been in the maze and what parts were new to them. They ran into the maze's outer wall about half an hour in, and with that, Robin was able to calculate vaguely how big the area was : about half a mile wide and another half mile long.

Though the maze barriers were concrete, the wall that encased it was metal. So, they were probably in some old factory of some sort. That didn't really help Robin out, but it was nice to know.

Wally and Robin tried for the better part of ten minutes to get Conner to smash his way through the wall, but the clone barely understood what they were saying. So, they gave up and kept moving on. There had to be an exit somewhere. All mazes had entrances and exits. It was the unspoken rule of mazes.

The three continued to stumble along, occasionally stopping so Wally could re-wrap his leg. Conner had lapsed into a state of semi-consciousness and was now moaning helplessly into Kid Flash's ear. Robin caught strings of words that didn't really make a cohesive statement together, but were distracting none the less.

"Cadmus…no…Clark…help!" The clone's voice rose to a near-shout. "Help! You…don't leave….no…." And then fell back into unearthly silence.

It hurt Robin to see his older teammate in such a state. Seeing the usually stoic boy as this - weak and terrified out of his mind - was unnerving. The vigilante was reminded for maybe the thirtieth time that day of why he just hated fear toxin.

Soon, the trio ran into the opposite side's wall, metal just like the other one.

Balling his hand up in rage, Robin slid out from under Superboy and flew at the wall in a rage. Punching it with all the strength he could muster, the teen yelled, "What do you want from us? Who are you?!" Ignoring the bruises forming under his glove, he lashed out at the wall again. "Show yourself! Who are you?"

"Ah ah ah, little bird," a silky voice whispered from somewhere above them. "Mustn't ask those questions. Not yet. Not until later…"

Robin froze. Looking up at the high ceiling, he shouted, "Scarecrow! I know it's you! No one else would have access to the fear toxin!" His eyes narrowed in rage. "Who are you working with? What do they want from us?!"

"Clever boy, clever boy," the Scarecrow said. If Robin could see his face, he would guess the man would be leering down at the trio. "But, you can't know that quite just yet. No, no, not yet. Not until you feel…the Fear."

There was a small pop and hiss, and then more gas seeped out from the floor, from the walls, everywhere. It filled the air around them within a matter of minutes.

Robin immediately clapped a hand over his mouth in an effort to block out the toxin, but it was everywhere. He could hear Wally gagging from behind him and the vigilante turned to peer at the speedster and Superboy through the haze.

Wally had collapsed onto the ground, retching and gasping for breath as his hands scrabbled at his throat madly. Superboy had frozen in place and was visibly trembling.

"No….no get away from me!" The clone whimpered, falling back to the concrete block behind him. "No…Clark! Clark!" His voice rose to a scream as he swatted as invisible demons. "Clark don't let them take me! I don't want to go back there!"

"Conner…" Robin managed slowly, feeling the toxin fill his lungs as he dropped his hands from his face. "It's going to be okay…."

"Richard?"

Robin froze.

A women's voice sounded again from behind him. "Richard?"

Hardly daring to believe it, Robin turned around and was immediately face to face with his mother's face.

Mary Grayson was wearing the clothes she died in. Brightly colored spandex in greens and reds that clashed with her auburn colored air.

"Look at you…" She whispered, voice as soft as a summer sky. "You've grown so much, Richard." Her smiling face widened ever further into a manic smile. "It's disgusting."

"What?" Robin gasped, taking a small step backwards, but strong hands stopped him and then his father's voice was in his ear.

"Did you really think you were ever going to be free from us?" John Grayson murmured. "That this…costume…would help you get past the guilt?"

"You knew those men were going to do something, " Mary hissed as her skin began to bubble and boil. "You **knew **we were going to die…and yet you did nothing."

"You killed us, Dick," his father said, voice now loud. Robin shuddered as he felt the man's teeth graze his ear. "You killed us!"

"You killed us," Mary repeated in a sing-song voice, flesh now falling in chunks from her face. "Murderer, murderer, murderer!"

"No…" Robin moaned, eyes closing against the horrid image. "I'm not!"

"Oh yes you are," Bruce's voice now cut in over Mary's shrieks. "Never tell yourself that you're anything but."

Robin's eyes snapped open and there was Bruce, dressed in the Batsuit, sans cowl. The man's hands were clasped in front of his body as he stared Robin down with a scowl.

"Bruce…" Robin choked out. "Help me."

"Now why would I do that?" Bruce's tone was mocking. "You're not really my son, after all. I could leave you to die and you know what?" His breath was suddenly hot in Robin's face. "I wouldn't care."

"No." Robin's eyes clamped down shut again. "You're not real."

"Do you really think that?" Bruce growled. "I'm insulted."

"You're not real," Robin repeated, voice trembling.

"You're pathetic," Bruce's voice snarled. "Weak. I don't know why I ever took you on as my partner. I should have just left you to rot with your pathetic excuse for parents-"

"You're not real!" Robin shouted, eyes flying open and Bruce was gone. Panting slightly, Robin was now aware of the commotion going on behind him. He turned and froze, heartbeat rising in panic once more.

Wally had collapsed against one of the maze walls, face white as a sheet. His bandage had come undone and he was now bleeding freely onto the ground. The speedster's chapped lips were moving as he muttered words that Robin could not hear, his eyes scrunched up and hands over his ears.

Conner had descended into a state of despair as the toxin took his toll on him. He was curled into a fetal position, moaning loudly to no one as his fingers dug deep channels into his arms.

"I don't want to be like this," the clone gasped into the concrete floor. "Help me, help me, help me."

Robin staggered over to the older teen, vaguely aware of the shadowy forms of his parents stalking him from behind, but he ignored them. Fighting back the sense of terror he felt, he wrenched Conner's hands from his bloody arms and shouted at the boy, "You're not going to Cadmus! It's going to be fine! Just…shut up you stupid fucking clone!"

Robin didn't know why he said it. He honestly didn't. It just came out. But Conner didn't really seem to notice him as his eyes fixated on something behind Robin.

"Clark?" The clone stumbled to his feet and tripped past Robin, hands slowly rising to gesture at empty air. "Superman? You came…" And then his face fell in shock, in hurt and then in confusion. "No…no, you accepted me. You said you wanted me!" His voice rose to a shout as he advanced on nothing. "You said you would **never **leave me behind! That we were** brothers**! Family!"

"Oh, now this is interesting," Scarecrow crooned, speaking for the first time in minutes. "How beautiful this all is, don't you think Robin?"

Robin collapsed to his knees, expression going blank as his parents' forms became stronger in front on him, laughing and sneering as blood pooled from their lips. "Just make it stop…" He breathed. "Make it stop…"

There was an animalistic roar from around him and then the horrible screech of metal being torn and then fresh air.

"No!" Scarecrow shrieked, voice rising to impossible pitches. "Not now! They'll kill me –" His voice was sharply cut off with a gurgle.

Robin's eyes flew open again at the screams, eyes struggling to focus in the now lighter area. Superboy, in a fit of rage, had thrown himself at the encasement wall and promptly ripped straight through it.

_Hey look,_ Robin thought dully. _All we had to do was piss him off. Would have saved us a lot of trouble._ He weakly chuckled to himself and then hiccupped, nearly falling over in the jolt. Still feeling the effects of the fear toxin, Robin groggily got halfway to his feet and partially dragged himself over to where Wally lay, still twitching against the ground.

"Hey, Wally?" Robin whispered, shaking the speedster's yellow cover shoulder. "Dude, look!"

Wally's green eyes fluttered open hazily. "Hey, look what Supey did!" he cried softly, voice bordering on hysteria. "Better not tell Batman or he'll kill us. Remember the last time he made a mess?" Giggling weakly to himself, the redhead's head dropped to Robin's shoulder as he passed out, blood dribbling from his mouth.

Groaning slightly, Robin heaved Kid Flash halfway over his back and heaved his best friend the ten feet through the Superboy-sized hole in the metal wall. Upon exiting, the Boy Wonder immediately collapsed, not even letting Kid Flash down from his back and simply let the speedster flop on top of him.

Breathing in the fresh air with gusto, Robin dug his hands into the rocky shore that he had fallen upon and pushed himself and the speedster on top of him up.. He could feel small cuts in his face and arms due to the sharp rocks. Fantastic.

They were in Gotham, in one of the old abandoned factories along the far side of Gotham Harbor. Robin could see the Sun setting behind the Gotham skyline as he shifted Wally from his arms back onto the ground.

"Hey, Supey? You okay?" He croaked.

"Do you really think he's okay?" Mary Grayson whispered into his ear.

Robin flinched, falling backwards into his father as he did. "No!" He gasped. "I got out…"

"This isn't some old kid's cartoon, Dickie," John said, laughing as he spun Robin around. "Just because you get out, doesn't mean you're safe. You're **never** safe. Not from us."

"No…"

"Believe it, Dickie!" his mother shrieked, dancing around Robin in glee. "We'll be with you forever and ever and ever!"

"No, you won't!" Robin shouted at her, temper flaring. "You're dead! Gone!" He could feel the tears slipping out of his eyes and down him face, loosening the mask from over his eyes. "Dead! I watched you die! I watched you fall! I saw – " And then his ankle buckled from under him and he collapsed, vision going black.

When he came to, the first thing he was aware of was the lack of pressure over his eyes. His mask. Hands flew up to his face to find the domino mask missing. Breaths increasing in his panic, Robin scrambled out of the bed he lay on and –

"Richard, stop. It's fine."

Bruce Wayne was sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed that Dick was halfway out of. His face was crumpled and dark shadows were under his eyes. The man's normally perfectly smooth face was dotting with rough stubble.

"Bruce?" Dick whispered, falling back onto the bed. "What happened?"

"The Light happened," Bruce said dully. "They grabbed you, Kid Flash and Superboy on your last mission. It was…it was a set up. I-I'm sorry… " He trailed off for a minute, then cleared his throat and began again. "They grabbed you and put you in some sort of maze. Engineered fear gas to work on Superboy and fed it to him. Guess they knew he wouldn't immediately try and get out." Bruce sighed, running a hand over his face. "God…"

Robin frowned. "Was Scarecrow working for them?"

"We believe so," Bruce said, leaning back in his chair with a hardened jaw. "He was gone by the time the League got there. No trace of anything that would indicate where he was or who supplied him with the needed Kryptonite. But, we did find large amounts of blood. Blood that matches Jonathan Crane's perfectly. So, we can assume… " He let the sentence hang, sparing Robin from the grimmer details. "The League barely showed up in time to find you three. Another few minutes and Kid Flash would have died from the blood loss."

"Why weren't you there before?" Dick didn't mean for the question to come out so accusing, but it did.

Bruce did not meet Robin's eyes. "We didn't know where you went. The warehouse you were taken at caught fire a few minutes after the Team contacted us and said you were missing. The only real lead we had was that Killer Croc was found a few hours later very close by. He won't confess to anything, but we can assume he was coerced into aiding the Light with the capture. And then the compound you were trapped in was lined with lead, making it difficult for…some of the League to locate you three."

"And how long were we in there?" Robin wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that one, but he asked anyway.

Bruce scratched the back of his neck in discomfort. "Two days, but for most of that, you were unconscious. At least, according to J'onn, who did a quick mental sweep of you, Kid Flash and Superboy to make sure you hadn't been…compromised."

Dick nodded, processing that information. "Um, how's Conner and Wally?"

"Both are in stable condition. Kid Flash is in Central City recovering his from injuries with his family. He will be off duty for a while though."

Robin let out a snort. "Oh, he will **not** be happy about that."

The sides of Bruce's mouth twitched upwards, but he didn't say anything.

"And Conner?" Robin prompted when the Dark Knight did not go on.

"He's in Metropolis," Bruce said, looking a bit thoughtful. "When he came to, he seemed very relieved to see Clark." He arched a well groomed eyebrow at Dick.

"Yeah, well, " Robin muttered. "He had a really rough time in there."

"That can be expected," Bruce murmured. "He and Clark have only really gotten close in the past six months, so it's natural that the boy will be hesitant about letting him go." Here he paused and scooted his chair closer to the bed. "But, Richard, how are you?"

Dick bit his lip. "Fine. Tired, but fine."

Bruce nodded. "That's good… I- " He cleared his throat. "I'm glad you're all right. Um…well, I'll let you be then."

"No, Bruce!"

The Dark Knight paused in getting up from his chair and then froze as Dick threw his arms around the larger man's neck in a hug.

"You would never hurt me, right?" He whispered into Bruce' neck.

"What? No, Richard, listen to me." Bruce stiffly pulled Dick off of him and looked into the fourteen year old's eyes. "Whatever you saw in there, it wasn't real. I would **never** ever think about hurting you, do you hear me?

"Except in training, right?'

Bruce smiled briefly, a rare sight to see. "Except in training," he agreed. "Look… He stood from his chair, gently prying Dick's arms from him. "You get some sleep, okay? I'll be back to take you home later."

And with that, he pulled his cowl over his face and left, leaving Dick alone in the hospital room with nothing but himself and the monotonous beeps of the heart monitor, still counting the beats of his life.

—-

**A/N: Kind of want to write more chapters of this. Kind of don't. Would anyone be interested in seeing more of this story?** **I'd like to go into what Wally saw, because what I had in my head was pretty, well, dark… **

**Anyway. Thanks for reading!**


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